Sarah Baker Leads Drillers to a Win

Two time SEYL individual champ Sarah Baker (Jr) is looking to dominate this season. She easily won last week's EB Invite and today won the girl's race by 73 seconds. Those who have followed Baker's career, know her previous MO was to sit and kick but this season it looks like she wants to hammer everyone including the boys.

Her 19:22 would of gotten her 5th in the boys race just behind her fellow Driller's Jacob Langston's 19:20, which made her the third fastest Driller of the day (at Eb she was the second fastest). In the team race, three of her team mates were only 8 seconds apart and took 3rd, 4th and 5th.

Baker, Garcia, Lerma and Shuford were undefeated in duals last season but lacked a 5th runner in the league meet and did not defend their 2007 SEYL crown. So far this season, they still have not found a fifth runner.

Girls:
Bakersfield 22, Garces 33 at the Kern River Parkway, 3-mile course

1. Baker, B, 19:22; 2. Guzman, G, 20:35; 3. Garcia, B, 21:24; 4. Lerma, B, 21:29; 5. Shuford, B, 21:32; 6. Brown, G, 21:37; 7. Cruz, G, 22:06; 8. Vu, G, 23:36; 9. DeLaHuerta, B, 24:07; 10. Lombardo, G, 24:20.

JV, F/S -- Garces won by forfeit.


Boys:
Garces 27, BHS 28 at the Kern River Parkway (3 miles)

After their last place finish at the EB Invite (They won in 2007 and placed second in 2008), no one would of expected a close boys race today. But Garces ended up only winning by a point and a very slow boys race. O'malley's time of 17:22 by himself is a decent time but the rest of the field was pretty slow.

1. O'Malley, G, 17:22; 2. Fred, G, 18:16; 3. Garner, B, 18:20; 4. Langston, B, 19:20; 5. Scrivano, B, 19:27; 6. Real, G, 19:43; 7. Miller, B, 1951; 8. Newman, G, 20.00; 9. Amidon, B, 20:19; 10. Gill, G, 20:31.

JV -- Garces won by forfeit; F/S -- BHS 21, Garces 34

Going For The Three-Peat

Sarah Baker (photo) has two SEYL individual titles and one team title so far plus a fist full of SEYL track titles too. In 2007, her squad one the team title with some help from Highland at the league meet. That year the Drillers lost a dual to Foothill but won the league meet.

In 2008, Bakersfield had a really good foursome (Baker, Lerma, Shuford and Garcia) but without a 5th, large field meets were a problem. They went undefeated in duals but without a 5th girl like they had with Sandy Felix (08) they could not defend their title.

Going into the 2009 season, they should have this tight foursome and have quite a few girls who can be their fifth runner and solve their big meet scoring problem. Besides going after SEYL titles, Baker looks to qualify for the state in the super fast division one, where no Kern County team has a shot at qualifying for the most part.

Last year, late season injuries kept two (Lerma and Garcia) of their four runners from competing at the valley meet.

10.   261  BAK/Bakersfield High                                     (  23:38  1:58:10)

1     25  Sarah Baker                    So    919    25   20:45
2     41  Emily Shuford                  So    920    41   21:43
3     62  Sarah Scrivano                 So    921    62   23:38
4     66  Maddie DeLaHuerta              So    924    66   25:56
5     67  Sara Stidham                  Jr    923    67   26:08
6   ( 68) Donna East                     Sr    922    68   26:42

Womens 1600 Meter
Rank Mark Name Grade School Section Meet Date
1 5:19.43 Sarah Baker 10 Bakersfield CE Patriot Games 04/24/09


Womens 3200 Meter
Rank Mark Name Grade School Section Meet Date
1 11:55.44 Sarah Baker Bakersfield CE Southeast Yosemite Lg Fi... 05/09/09

88:39 Team Time - 17:44 average by Bakersfield at Valley 08

88:39 Team Time - 17:44 average by Bakersfield at Valley 08

8. 211 BAK/Bakersfield High ( 17:44 1:28:39)

1 23 Andrew Ariey Sr 926 23 16:57
2 35 Zach Holt Sr 928 35 17:28
3 49 Jake Purcell Sr 929 49 17:55
4 51 Andrew Edquist Sr 927 51 18:05
5 53 Chris Anderson Jr 932 53 18:14
6 ( 68) Nick Flores Sr 931 68 20:05
7 ( 69) Robby Harris Sr 930 69 22:03


The Drillers have been improving over the past three years but now face a rebuilding year. They were 4 and 2 in duals in 2007 and 5 and 1 in 2008. In fact, their only lost to Highland by two points in the final dual of the season on Highland's very challenging home course. Dual meet success did not carry over in the league meet however. Depth was always an issue and last year they had a good group of five but no one in reserve. So if one runner had a bad day, their goose was cooked.

Going into 2009, the entire varsity squad from 2008 is gone. The fastest Driller going into this year is actually Sarah Baker who has broken 19 minutes on the Hart Park course and 20 minutes on the Woodward Park course. But with a school as big as BHS, there will be someone coming along I am sure. Two returnees that may have an impact this year are Jacob Langston (Jr) and Bart Elliot (So). Both mainly ran frosh/soph last year and could do well this year.